Outlying districts of Mazarron: Ifre-Pastrana

A rural district in the west of the municipality of Mazarrón

The pedanía or outlying district of Ifre-Pastrana is approximately 12 kilometres south-west of Mazarrón, and was part of Cañada de Gallego (Ifre-Gallego) until 1970: for this reason both villages have the prefix Ifre. Today the settlement has a population of 431, having halved over the last deade or so.

The first traces of settlements in this area relate to the Argaric culture, which dates them to sometime between 1800 and 1300 BC. This culture, which spread across into the area from Almería, generally settled on higher ground, giving them views over the land they occupied.

Their settlements tended to be walled, featuring simple rectangular houses within a very simple basic street system. Burial was often in individual graves, normally below the floor of the family home, using kists or ceramic urns and accompanying the deceased with grave goods. The settlements subsisted on their crop farming and livestock.

The next discernible population to follow the Argarics were the Phoenicians, who traded along the coastline of this area and are known to have been active in the Mazarrón area due to the discovery of two sunken ships off the Playa de la Isla, although there is no trace of Phoenician settlements. This activity dates from around 600BC.

Following them were the Iberians, a culture which developed advanced metalwork techniques, attracted to this area by the mineral deposits which shaped the rest of Mazarrón's history. They were active in this part of Mazarrón between 550BC and around 50BC, when the presence of the Romans changed the identity and practices of their individual culture, creating a more cosmopolitan and less definable society which dominated the area for several hundred years to follow.

The mining activities of the Romans impacted on the landscape of Pastrana in a less noticeable fashion, as the Coto Fortuna was several kilometres away near Leiva, but this was important as it supplied the workers in the mines with food: agriculture was already the foremost activity at that time, as it is now.

As the Roman influence waned, the Moors arrived from Africa, creating fortified farmhouses and small villages protected by castles. These were built in strategic areas such as next to roads or on hills overlooking valleys. One such example is the Castillo de Pastrana, which is situated on the municipal boundary between Lorca and Mazarrón.

Although little remains of the castle today, excavations have uncovered remains of substantial walls as well as human bones, indicating that it was re-used by the Christian populations which took over from the Moors in the 13th century. It seems that the bones were within a medieval cemetery.

In the 13^th century the Kingdom of Murcia became part of Castilla and was an unattractive and insecure area for population, and although initially an accord was reached between the Moors and the Christian forces which took over the area, uprisings resulted in the former being definitively expelled in the 15^th century. This then lead to these coastal areas being dangerous and unstable areas in which to live, due to attacks by African (Berber) pirates throughout the 16^th and 17^th centuries, so population levels were low.

In the 18^th century there are documentary mentions of the church at Ifre, a place of worship for farmers in the area, who gradually formed religious and administrative communities.

The 19^th and 20^th centuries were a time of growth for mining towns like Mazarrón, and the remains of a mining railway from the La Positiva mine to the coast can be seen in the Rambla de Pastrana.

Nowadays Pastrana maintains part of its non-irrigated agriculture, consisting of olives and grapes, but at the same time technological innovations related to irrigation and crop farming have changed its landscape and indeed its history. The countryside has been transformed by the creation of tomato plantations under plastic, and the road to Pastrana is flanked on both sides by plastic sheeting. Although these plantations may not be aesthetically pleasing they have been a source of wealth for the inhabitants, and the social landscape has also changed with the arrival of a second wave of African immigrants, this time mainly from the north of Africa, who carry out the hard manual work within the agricultural exploitations.

Fiestas in Pastrana

The fiestas of Pastrana are held to celebrate the feast day of Santiago Apóstol, which falls on 25^th July.

Centro Social Pastrana

The "Santiago Apóstol" social centre in Pastrana was officially opened in January 1997, providing a meeting house and leisure centre for the community. Inside there is a bar/restaurant and a hall which hosts weekend dances, courses, talks and meetings.

The Landscape around Pastrana

The native vegetation on the hills around Pastrana consists of rosemary, hawthorns, "albaida", thyme and esparto grass, while in the Rambla de Pastrana there are more humid areas where reeds and oleanders also grow. Many of the pine and carob trees are well over a hundred years old.

The most notable nature reserves are the Sierra de la Almenara and the Sierra de las Moreras, which have been declared Areas of Interest to the Community (LICs) and Birdlife Protection Areas (ZEPAs). Here there is a protected population of spur-thighed tortoises, which are in danger of extinction, and golden eagles, eagle owls and peregrine falcons can also be seen.

The other main feature of Pastrana is the agricultural landscape, including traditional Mediterranean crops such as almonds and olives alongside crops requiring irrigation such as lettuce, broccoli, melons, water-melons and citrus fruit.

Others are grown under plastic, using advanced drip-irrigation techniques, the main crops being tomatoes and cucumbers.

Property in Ifre-Pastrana

This is an intensely agricultural area with a low expat population. Much of the accommodation is focused in the village of Pastrana itself, which has restaurant facilities and social centre. As Pastrana is intensively farmed, there are considerable areas covered with greenhousing, although there are other areas which are more attractive. However, properties are few in these areas.

Location